III. This leads us to our third topic. The character of those who are interested in him as a Saviour—“all them that obey him.”
To obey is to submit to authority—to do what is commanded. What is the command of God the Father? That ye should believe on the name of his Son. What is the command of Christ, the Captain of our salvation? “Ye believe in God; believe also inme.” It is said that he is precious to them that believe, but unbelievers are disobedient. They are all a disaffected and rebellious army, who will not obey their Captain. They have made God a liar, and are condemned for their unbelief. The Father saith—“Kiss the Son, lest he be angry!” but they reply—“Away with him! away with him! we will not have him to reign over us!”
Is this your character? You are commanded to “behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” Have you obeyed? What are you doing? Are you determined to rebel? Will you risk the consequences of disobedience? O, you are reading the book of election, are you? You are looking for your names in the book of election; but lo! you find them written in the book of damnation, under the article—“He that believeth not shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him!” What shall be done in such a case? Obey the Captain of your salvation. Do ye not hear him, as he rides along the ranks, proclaiming—“To-day, if ye will hear my voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation! Incline your ear, and come unto me; hear, and your soul shall live!” Obey, obey this gracious exhortation. Come, with your petitions for pardon. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved. Behold a door of hope opening for you in the blood of atonement. There is forgiveness and sanctification for all that believe. Does your sense of guilt overwhelm you with gloomy fears, and plunge you in despair? Do you tremble at the thought of the multitude and enormity of your crimes? Cry aloud, with all your hearts—“God be merciful to me a sinner!” Remember that your Prince “is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him.” Hear him calling you—“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest! Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light!” Who, then, would not obey thee, blessed Jesus?
“Had I, dear Lord, a thousand hearts,I’d give them all to thee;A thousand tongues, they all should joinThe grateful harmony!”
“Had I, dear Lord, a thousand hearts,I’d give them all to thee;A thousand tongues, they all should joinThe grateful harmony!”
We have a remarkable instance of faith and obedience in Abraham. There was no natural probability, there was no apparentpossibility of the fulfilment of the promise; but Abraham believed, rested on the naked word of God, and went to mount Moriah to offer up his only son. Here was the triumph of faith, and it is recorded for our encouragement. Did the patriarch firmly believe the promise—“In Isaac shall thy seed be called?” Yes verily, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Did the patriarch believe, on the strength of that promise, that God would not permit him to offer up his only son? No, verily; but he was determined to obey God, and leave the event with him, well assured that God would fulfil his word, though it should require the miracle of Isaac’s resurrection. Thus your faith must soar above nature, and lay hold on the righteousness of Christ, which justifieth the ungodly. When you believe with all your heart, God will smile upon you, and calm your troubled soul, and hush the raging storms of a guilty conscience, for the sake of the satisfaction which he received in the obedience of Christ, as the substitute and surety of his people. This is the Urim and Thummim—light and perfection—of the gospel, beaming upon us through the twelve stars—the apostles of the Lamb, pacifying the conscience, and answering the important question—“What shall I do to be saved?” I feel within me a sea of corruption, but I know that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.
Faith and obedience are inseparable, and the former is dead without the latter. They wrought together in Abel, and therefore he offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. They wrought together in Noah, and led him to prepare an ark to the saving of his house. Abraham not only believed that God would give him and his seed the land of Canaan; but he set forth at the Divine command, not knowing whither he went. Moses not only believed that God would deliver Israel out of Egypt; but, in obedience to his command, he “refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Thus, true faith always leads to obedience. It is a living principle, by which the soul is quickened from the death of sin to a new life of holiness. It is the means through which, by the Holy Ghost, we are created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works. It works by love, and love is always the great motive to obedience. It gives us large and clear views of the love of God in Christ; then “we love him becausehe first loved us;” and “this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.” Thus, by faith, “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts,” leading us to a holy life. Such is the connection between faith and obedience, and the necessity of one to the other.
And now, brethren, let us trust in the Captain of our salvation. In the ages before his advent, many sons were brought to glory through faith in his future sufferings. In the fulness of time, he visited our world; assumed our nature; atoned for our transgressions; and, ascending to the right hand of the Father, as our representative and intercessor, “became the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him.”
“O Captain of salvation! makeThy power and glory known,Till clouds of willing captives come,And worship at thy throne!”
“O Captain of salvation! makeThy power and glory known,Till clouds of willing captives come,And worship at thy throne!”
“It is finished.”—John xix. 30.
“It is finished.”—John xix. 30.
Thisexclamation derives all its importance from the magnitude of the work alluded to, and the glorious character of the agent. The work is the redemption of the world; the agent is God manifest in the flesh. He who finished the creation of the heavens and the earth in six days, is laying the foundation of a new creation on Calvary. Four thousand years he has been giving notice of his intention to mankind; more than thirty years he has been personally upon earth, preparing the material; and now he lays the chief corner stone in Zion, exclaiming—“It is finished.”
We will first consider the special import of the exclamation, and then offer a few remarks of a more general character.
I. “It is finished.” This saying of the Son of God is a very striking one; and, uttered, as it was, while he hung in dying agonies upon the cross, cannot fail to make a strong impression upon the mind. It is natural for us to inquire—“What does it mean? To what does the glorious victim refer?” A complete answer to the question would develope the whole scheme of redemption. We can only glance at a few leading ideas.
The sufferings of Christ are ended. Never again shall he be persecuted from city to city, as an impostor and servant of Satan. Never again shall he say—“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.” Never again shall he agonize in Gethsemane, and sweat great drops of blood. Never again shall he be derided by the rabble, and insulted by men in power. Never again shall he be crowned with thorns, lacerated by the scourge, and nailed to the accursed tree. Never again shall he cry out, in the anguish ofhis soul, and the baptism of blood—“My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me!”
The predictions of his death are fulfilled. The prophets had spoken of his crucifixion many hundred years before his birth. They foresaw the Governor who was to come forth from Bethlehem. They knew the babe in the manger, as he whose goings forth are of old, even from everlasting. They drew an accurate chart of his travels, from the manger to the cross, and from the cross to the throne. All these things must be fulfilled. Jesus knew the necessity, and seemed anxious that every jot and tittle should receive an exact accomplishment. His whole life was a fulfilment of prophecy. On every path he walked, on every house he entered, on every city he visited, and especially on the mysterious phenomena which accompanied his crucifixion, it was written—“that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.”
The great sacrifice for sin is accomplished. For this purpose Christ came into the world. He is our appointed high-priest, the elect of the Father, and the desire of nations. He alone who was in the bosom of the Father, could offer a sacrifice of sufficient merit to atone for human transgression. But it was necessary also that he should have somewhat to offer. Therefore a body was prepared for him. He assumed the seed of Abraham, and suffered in the flesh. This was a sacrifice of infinite value, being sanctified by the altar of Divinity on which it was offered. All the ceremonial sacrifices could not obtain the bond from the hand of the creditor. They were only acknowledgments of the debt. But Jesus, by one offering, paid the whole, took up the bond—the handwriting that was against us, and nailed it to his cross; and when driving the last nail, he cried—“It is finished!”
The satisfaction of Divine justice is completed. The violated law must be vindicated; the deserved penalty must be endured; if not by the sinner himself, yet by the sinner’s substitute. This was the great undertaking of the Son of God. He “bore our sins”—that is, the punishment of our sins—“in his own body on the tree.” He was “made a curse for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” There was no other way by which the honor of God and the dignity of his law could be sustained, and therefore “the Lord laid upon him the iniquities of us all.” He “died unto sin once;” not merely for sin, enduring its punishment in our stead; but also“unto sin,” abolishing its power, and putting it away. Therefore it is said, he “made an end of sin”—destroyed its condemning and tormenting power on behalf of all them that believe. His sufferings were equal to the claims of justice; and his dying cry was the voice of Justice himself proclaiming the satisfaction. Here, then, may the dying thief, and the persecutor of the holy, lay down their load of guilt and wo at the foot of the cross.
The new and living way to God is consecrated. A vail has hitherto concealed the holy of holies. None but the high-priest has seen the ark of the covenant, and the glory of God resting upon the mercy-seat between the cherubim. He alone might enter, and he but once a year, and then with fear and trembling, and the sprinkling of atoning blood, after the most careful purification, and sacrifice for himself and the people. But our great High-priest has made an end of sacrifice by the one offering of himself. He has filled his hands with his own blood, and entered into heaven itself, there to appear in the presence of God for us. The sweet incense which he offers fills the temple, and the merit of his sacrifice remains the same through all time, superseding all other offering for ever. Therefore we are exhorted to come boldly to the throne of grace. The tunnel under the Thames could not be completed on account of an accident which greatly damaged the work, without a new subscription for raising money; but Jesus found infinite riches in himself, sufficient for the completion of a new way to the Father—a living way through the valley of the shadow of death to “the city of the Great King.”
The conquest of the powers of darkness is achieved. When their hour was come, the Prince and his hosts were on the alert to accomplish the destruction of the Son of God. They assailed him with peculiar temptations, and leveled against him their heaviest artillery. They instigated one disciple to betray him and another to deny him. They fired the rage of the multitude against him, so that the same tongues that lately sung—“Hosanna to the Son of David!” now shouted—“Crucify him! Crucify him!” They filled the priests and scribes with envy, that they might accuse him without a cause; and inspired Pilate with an accursed ambition, that he might condemn him without a fault. They seared the conscience of the false witnesses, that they might charge the Just One with the most flagrant crimes; and cauterized the hearts of theRoman soldiers, that they might mock him in his sufferings, and nail him to the cross. Having succeeded so far in their hellish plot, they doubtless deemed their victory certain. I see them crowding around the cross, waiting impatiently to witness his last breath, ready to shout with infernal triumph to the depths of hell, till the brazen walls should send back their echoes to the gates of the heavenly city. But hark! the dying Saviour exclaims—“It is finished!” and the great dragon and his host retreat, howling, from the cross. The Prince of our salvation turned back all their artillery upon themselves, and their own stratagems become their ruin. The old serpent seized Messiah’s heel, but Messiah stamped upon the serpent’s head. The dying cry of Jesus shook the dominions of death, so that the bodies of many that slept arose; and rang through all the depths of hell, the knell of its departed power. Thus the Prince of this world was foiled in his schemes, and disappointed in his hopes; like the men of Gaza, when they locked up Samson at night, thinking to kill him in the morning; but awoke to find that he was gone, with the gates of the city upon his shoulders. When the Philistines caught Samson, and brought him to their temple, to make sport for them, they never dreamed of the disaster in which it would result—never dreamed that their triumph over the poor blind captive would be the occasion of their destruction. Suffer me, said he, to lean on the two pillars. Then he bowed himself, and died with his enemies. So Christ on Calvary, while the powers of darkness exulted over their victim, seized the main pillars of sin and death, and brought down the temple of Satan upon its occupants; but on the morning of the third day, he left them all in the ruins, where they shall remain for ever, and commenced his journey home to his Father’s house.
II. So much concerning the import of our Saviour’s exclamation. Such was the work which he finished upon the cross. We add a few remarks of a more general character.
The sufferings of Christ were vicarious. He died, not for his own sins, but for ours. He humbled himself, that we might be exalted. He became poor, that we might be made rich. He was wounded, that we might be healed. He drained the cup of wrath, that we might drink the waters of salvation. He died the shameful and excruciating death of the cross, that we might live and reign with him for ever.
“Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to have entered into his glory?” This “ought” is the ought of mercy and of covenant engagement. He must discharge the obligation which he had voluntarily assumed. He must finish the work which he had graciously begun. There was no other Saviour—no other being in the universe willing to undertake the work; or, if any willing to undertake, none able to accomplish it. The salvation of one human soul would have been too mighty an achievement for Gabriel—for all the angels in heaven. Had not “the Only Begotten of the Father” become our surety, we must have lain for ever under the wrath of God, amid “weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.” None but the Lion of the tribe of Judah could break the seals of that mysterious book. None but “God manifest in the flesh” could deliver us from the second death.
The dying cry of Jesus indicates the dignity of his nature, and the power of life that was in him to the last. All men die of weakness—of inability to resist death—die because they can live no longer. But this was not the case with the Son of God. He speaks of laying down his life as his own voluntary act;—“No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.” He “poured out his soul unto death”—did not wait for it to be torn from him—did not hang languishing upon the cross, till life “ebbed out by slow degrees;” but poured it out freely, suddenly, and unexpectedly. As soon as the work was done for which he came into the world, he cried—“It is finished!” “bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.” Then the sun was darkened, the earth quaked, the rocks rent, the graves opened, and the centurion said—“Truly, this man was the Son of God!” He cried with a loud voice, to show that he was still unconquered by pain, mighty even upon the cross. He bowed his head that death might seize him. He was naturally far above the reach of death, his Divine nature being self-existent and eternal, and his human nature entitled to immortality by its immaculate holiness; yet “he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross”—“He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.”
We may regard his last exclamation, also, as an expression of his joy, at having accomplished the great “travail of his soul,” in the work of our redemption. It was the work which the Father hadgiven him, and which he had covenanted to do. It lay heavy upon his heart; and O, how was he straitened till it was accomplished! His “soul was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;” “and his sweat as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground.” But upon the cross, he saw of the travail of his soul, and was satisfied. He saw that his sacrifice was accepted, and the object of his agony secured—that death would not be able to detain him in the grave, nor hell to defeat the purposes of his grace—that the gates of the eternal city would soon open to receive him as a conqueror, and myriads of exultant angels shout him to his throne; whither he would be followed by his redeemed, with songs of everlasting joy. He saw, and he was satisfied; and, not waiting for the morning of the third day, but already confident of victory, he uttered this note of triumph, and died.
And if we may suppose them to have understood its import, what a source of consolation must it have been to his sorrowing disciples! The sword had pierced through Mary’s heart, according to the prediction of old Simeon over the infant Jesus. Her affections had bled at the agony of her supernatural Son, and her wounded faith had wellnigh perished at his cross. And how must all his followers have felt, standing afar off, and beholding their supposed Redeemer suffering as a malefactor! How must all their hopes have died within them, as they gazed on the accursed tree! The tragedy was mysterious, and they deemed their enemies victorious. Jesus is treading the winepress in Bozrah, and the earth is shaking, and the rocks are rending, and the luminaries of heaven are expiring, and all the powers of nature are fainting, in sympathy with his mighty agony. Now he is lost in the fire and smoke of battle, and the dread artillery of justice is heard thundering through the thick darkness, and shouts of victory rise from the troops of hell, and who shall foretell the issue of the combat, or the fate of the Champion? But lo! he cometh forth from the cloud of battle, with blood upon his garments! He is wounded, but he hath the tread and the aspect of a conqueror. He waves his crimsoned sword, and cries—“It is finished!” Courage, ye weepers at the cross! Courage, ye tremblers standing afar off! The Prince of your salvation is victor, and this bulletin of the war shall cheer myriads of believers in the house of their pilgrimage, and the achievement which it announces shall constitute an everlasting theme of praise!
“It is finished!” The word smote on the walls of the celestial city, and thrilled the hosts of heaven with ecstasy unspeakable. How must “the spirits of just men made perfect” have leaped with joy, to hear that the Captain of their salvation was victorious over all his enemies, and that the work he had engaged to do for them and their brethren was completed! and with what wonder and delight must the holy angels have witnessed the triumph of him, whom they were commanded to worship, over the powers of darkness! It was the commencement of a new era in heaven, and never before had its happy denizens seen so much of God.
“It is finished!” Go, ye heralds of salvation, into all the world, and proclaim the joyful tidings! Cry aloud, and spare not; lift up your voice like a trumpet, and publish to all men, that the work of the cross is finished—that the great Mediator, “made perfect through sufferings,” has become “the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him”—“is of God made unto us, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption!” Go, teach the degraded Pagan, the deluded Mohammedan, and the superstitious Papist, that the finished work of Jesus is the only way of acceptance with God! Go, tell the polished scholar, the profound philosopher, and the vaunting moralist, that the doctrine of Christ crucified is the only knowledge that can save the soul! Go, say to the proud skeptic, the bold blasphemer, and the polluted libertine, “Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world!” Preach it to the gasping sinner upon his death-bed, and the sullen murderer in his cell! Let it ring in every human ear, and thrill in every human heart, till the gladness of earth shall be the counterpart of heaven!
“He is not here;for he is risen,as he said.Come,see the place where the Lord lay.”—Matt. xxviii. 6.
“He is not here;for he is risen,as he said.Come,see the place where the Lord lay.”—Matt. xxviii. 6.
Thecelebrated Jonathan Edwards of America begins his History of Redemption with an account of the Lord’s visit to Adam and Eve at the cool of the day in Eden. All the wonderful works of God toward the children of men, since the seed of the woman was promised to bruise the serpent’s head, are to be considered as so many parts of the same great machinery of providence, whose wheels, like those of Ezekiel’s vision, all move in majestic harmony, though their thousand revolutions may seem to us discordant and confused. The chief design of all the Divine manifestations recorded in the Old Testament was to prepare the way for the Redeemer’s appearance upon earth. Jehovah often suffered his people to be in great distress and perplexity; he lengthened the chain of Satan and his angels, allowed a partial success of their infernal schemes, and permitted them to prevail for a season against his people, and pride themselves in their power and their skill, in order to make their defeat the more signal, and gather more glory to himself from their final overthrow. During the engagement, the victory often seemed to be on the side of the enemy; but when the smoke of battle cleared away, the pillar of God was seen upon the camp of Israel. If his people are besieged between Pi-hahiroth and Baal-zephon, he raises the siege by dividing the sea, and making a highway through the deep, while the waters rise up in a solid wall on the right and the left, and roll back in ruin on the pursuing foe. If an army comes to arrest Elisha on Carmel, the mountain iscovered with celestial warriors, and the surrounding heavens teem with horsemen and chariots of fire, and the enemy are smitten with blindness, and taken captive by the prophet. If Goliath of Gath confronts the camp of Israel with his challenge, roaring like a lion, till the valley resounds with his voice, a little shepherd-boy goes forth with his sling, and the vaunting blasphemer is smitten to the ground, and slain with his own sword. If the worshippers of the true God are cast into the fiery furnace, or the den of lions, to show the power and gratify the pride of an infamous tyrant, there is one among them “like unto the Son of Man,” and the violence of the fire is quenched, and the mouths of the lions are stopped.
But when Messiah was slain and buried, the enemies of God boasted more than ever in their crafty and malicious schemes. This was the great decisive engagement between Heaven and hell. The enemy imagined “the Captain of our salvation” vanquished and destroyed. But his fall was no defeat. He yielded to the powers of darkness apparently, that he might triumph over them openly. He suffered himself to be taken prisoner by death, that he might seize the tyrant on his throne, demolish his empire, and deliver his captives. And if none of his friends on earth had courage to proclaim his resurrection, a preacher descended from heaven to announce the joyful fact:—“He is not here; for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
Wonderful message, and wonderful messenger! On the morning of the third day after his crucifixion, Jesus revived in his tomb, and the sound of the earthquake reached the heaven of heavens, and a mighty angel, swifter than the light, descended straight to the new grave in Joseph’s garden, calling on no one for the key, instantly rolled away the stone from the door, and sat upon it, and made it his pulpit, from which he preached to the women the doctrine of our Lord’s resurrection.
Let us consider,first, the testimony by which this fact is sustained, andsecondly, the fact itself, as the sure basis of Christianity.
I. It appears from the record of the evangelist Luke, that the women were much perplexed at finding the stone rolled away from the mouth of the sepulchre, and the body of Jesus gone. Then they were saluted by two angels in shining apparel, who said;—“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you while he was yet in Galilee,saying—The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again. And they remembered his words.”
Here is the testimony of two credible witnesses, a sufficient number to attest the truth of our Lord’s resurrection; who testified to nothing but what they had personally witnessed, and knew to be fact; and delivered their testimony in simple and unambiguous language, that could not well be misunderstood.
While the women went to inform the disciples of what they had seen and heard, “behold, some of the watch came into the city, and showed unto the chief priests all the things that were done.” And what was done? What can be the testimony of these enemies of Christ concerning his resurrection? That “an angel, whose countenance was like lightning, and his garments white as snow, descended from heaven, and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat upon it;” which so terrified them that they “became as dead men.”
To confirm these testimonies, our blessed Lord himself “appeared unto many after his resurrection, who were witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews, and at Jerusalem; and how he was slain, and hanged on a tree; and how God raised him up the third day, and showed him openly; not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before of God; even to the disciples, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead; whom he commanded to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he who is ordained of God to be the judge of quick and dead”—“to whom he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs; being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.”
Here we may observe, that he appeared to those who knew him best, and gave them satisfactory and incontestible evidence of his resurrection. And he appeared, not only to the apostles, but to more than five hundred brethren at once. We have an account of his appearing at ten or eleven different times. On these occasions, he conversed with his disciples, reminded them of what he had said to them before his crucifixion, showed them his hands and his feet, and besought them to touch arid examine his person, and satisfy themselves as to his identity. So that they had ample opportunity, and every facility that could be desired, for ascertaining whether hewas indeed Jesus of Nazareth, their master, who was lately crucified before their eyes.
It was therefore with great power that the apostles bore witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And the Holy Spirit corroborated their testimony. Our faith in this distinctive doctrine of Christianity rests on a Divine foundation. “If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater.” “And the apostles went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord also working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” In a few weeks after the resurrection of their Master, their testimony concerning it was received and firmly believed by many thousands, not in some distant and desert part of the world, but in Jerusalem, where he had been crucified.
How nobly the apostle Peter reasoned on this subject when he said:—“Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you, by miracles, and wonders, and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain; whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holden of it.”
Such was the evidence of our Lord’s resurrection, that among those who were living at the time, and even those of them who so strenuously opposed the gospel, it appears to have been scarcely doubted. Pilate, in a letter to Tiberius, the Roman emperor, said, that Jesus, being raised from the dead, was believed by many to be God; whereupon the Roman Senate expressed no doubt of his resurrection, but debated the question of receiving him as one of the gods of Rome; which, however, was overruled by Divine Providence, for the honor of Christianity; for he who is higher than heaven, and the heaven of heavens, was not to be ranked with dumb idols upon earth.
II. Let us now consider the fact of our Lord’s resurrection, and its bearing upon the great truths of our holy religion.
This most transcendent of miracles is sometimes attributed to the agency of the Father; who, as the Lawgiver, had arrested and imprisoned in the grave the sinner’s Surety, manifesting at once his benevolence and his holiness; but by liberating the prisoner, proclaimedthat the debt was cancelled, and the claims of the law satisfied. It is sometimes attributed to the Son himself; who had power both to lay down his life, and to take it again; and the merit of whose sacrifice entitled him to the honor of thus asserting his dominion over death, on behalf of his people. And sometimes it is attributed to the Holy Spirit, as in the following words of the apostle:—“He was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.”
The resurrection of Christ is clear and incontestible proof of his Divinity.
He had declared himself equal with God the Father, and one with him in nature and in glory. He had told the people that he would prove the truth of this declaration, by rising from the grave three days after his death. And when the morning of the third day began to dawn upon the sepulchre, lo! there was an earthquake, and the dead body arose, triumphant over the power of corruption.
This was the most stupendous miracle ever exhibited on earth, and its language is:—“Behold, ye persecuting Jews and murdering Romans, the proof of my Godhead! Behold, Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, the power and glory of your victim! I am he that liveth, and was dead; and lo! I am alive for evermore! I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star! Look unto me, and be ye saved, all ye ends of the earth; for I am God, and besides me there is none else!”
Our Lord’s resurrection affords incontrovertible evidence of the truth of Christianity.
Pilate wrote the title of Christ in three languages on the cross; and many have written excellent and unanswerable things, on the truth of the Christian Scriptures, and the reality of the Christian religion; but the best argument that has ever been written on the subject, was written by the invisible hand of the Eternal Power, in the rocks of our Saviour’s sepulchre. This confounds the skeptic, settles the controversy, and affords an ample and sure foundation for all them that believe.
If any one asks whether Christianity is from heaven or of men, we point him to the “tomb hewn out of the rock,” and say—“There is your answer! Jesus was crucified, and laid in that cave; but on the morning of the third day, it was found empty; our Master had risen and gone forth from the grave victorious.”
This is the pillar that supports the whole fabric of our religion; and he who attempts to pull it down, like Samson, pulls down ruin upon himself. “If Christ is not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain, ye are yet in your sins;” but if the fact is clearly proved, then Christianity is unquestionably true, and its disciples are safe.
This is the ground on which the apostle stood, and asserted the divinity of his faith:—“Moreover, I testify unto you the gospel, which I preached unto you; which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain; for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.”
The resurrection of Jesus is the most stupendous manifestation of the power of God,and the pledge of eternal life to his people.
The apostle calls it “the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead.” This is a river overflowing its banks—an idea too large for language. Let us look at it a moment.
Where do we find “the exceeding greatness of his power?” In the creation of the world? in the Seven Stars and Orion? in the strength of Behemoth and Leviathan? No! In the deluge? in the fiery destruction of Sodom? in the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host? in hurling Nebuchadnezzar like Lucifer from the political firmament? No! It is the power which he wrought in Christ. When? When he healed the sick? when he raised the dead? when he cast out devils? when he blasted the fruitless fig-tree? when he walked upon the waters of the Galilee? No! It was “when he raised him from the dead.” Then the Father placed the sceptre in the hand of the Son, “and set him above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church.”
This is the source of our spiritual life. The same power that raised the dead body of our Lord from the grave, quickens the soulof the believer from the death in trespasses and sins. His riven tomb is a fountain of living waters; whereof if a man drink, he shall never die. His raised and glorified body is the sun, whence streams eternal light upon our spirits; the light of life, that never can be quenched.
Nor here does the influence of his resurrection end. He who raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken our mortal bodies. His resurrection is the pledge and the pattern of ours. “Because he liveth we shall live also.” “He shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body.” We hear him speaking in the prophet:—“Thy dead men shall live; together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead.”
How divinely does the apostle speak of the resurrection-body of the saints! “It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written—Death is swallowed up in victory! O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God, that giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Ever since the fall in Eden, man is born to die. He lives to die. He eats and drinks, sleeps and wakes, to die. Death, like a dark steel-clad warrior, stands ever before us; and his gigantic shadow comes continually between us and happiness. But Christ hath “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” He was born in Bethlehem, that he might die on Calvary. He was made under the law, that he might bear the direst penalty of the law. He lived thirty-three years, sinless among sinners, that he might offer himself a sin-offering for sinners upon the cross. Thus he “became obedient unto death,” that he might destroy the power of death; and on the third morning, a mighty angel, rolling away the stone from the mouth of the sepulchre, makes the very door of Death’s castle the throne whence he proclaims “the resurrection and the life.”
The Hero of our salvation travelled into Death’s dominion, tookpossession of the whole territory on our behalf, and returning laden with spoils, ascended to the heaven of heavens. He went to the palace, seized the tyrant, and wrested away his sceptre. He descended into the prison-house, knocked off the fetters of the captives; and when he came up again, left the door of every cell open, that they might follow him. He has gone over into our promised inheritance, and his glory illuminates the mountains of immortality; and through the telescope which he has bequeathed us, we “see the land that is very far off.”
I recollect reading in the writings of Flavel this sentiment—that the souls in paradise wait with intense desire for the reanimation of their dead bodies, that they may be united to them in bliss for ever. O, what rapture there shall be among the saints, when those frail vessels, from which they escaped with such a struggle, as they foundered in the gulf of death, shall come floating in, with the spring-tide of the resurrection, to the harbor of immortality! How glorious the reunion, when the seeds of affliction and death are left behind in the tomb! Jacob no longer lame, nor Moses slow of speech, nor Lazarus covered with sores, nor Paul troubled with a thorn in the flesh!
“It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The glory of the body of Christ is far above our present conception. When he was transfigured on Tabor, his face shone like the sun, and his raiment was white as the light. This is the pattern shown to his people in the mount. This is the model after which the bodies of believers shall be fashioned in the resurrection. “They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever.”
In conclusion:—The angel said to the women—“Go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him; lo! I have told you. And they departed quickly from the sepulchre, with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.”
Brethren! followers of Jesus! be ye also preachers of a risen Saviour! Go quickly—there is no time for delay—and publish the glad tidings to sinners! Tell them that Christ died for their sins, and rose again for their justification, and ascended to the right handof the Father to make intercession for them, and is now able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto God by him!
And you, impenitent and unbelieving men! hear this blessed message of salvation! Do you intend ever to embrace the proffered mercy of the gospel? Make haste! Procrastination is ruin! Now is the accepted time! O, fly to the throne of grace! Time is hastening; you will soon be swallowed up in eternity! May the Lord have mercy upon you, and rouse you from your indifference and sloth! It is my delight to invite you to Christ; but I feel more pleasure and more confidence in praying for you to God. I have besought and entreated you, by every argument and every motive in my power; but you are yet in your sins, and rushing on toward hell. Yet I will not give you up in despair. If I cannot persuade you to flee from the wrath to come, I will intercede with God to have mercy upon you for the sake of his beloved Son. If I cannot prevail in the pulpit, I will try to prevail at the throne!
“Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.”—Acts iii. 21.
“Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.”—Acts iii. 21.
Thesewords are part of St. Peter’s sermon to the people of Jerusalem, on occasion of the cure of the lame man, at the “Beautiful Gate” of the temple, shortly after the day of Pentecost.
This, and the sermon recorded in the preceding chapter, were perhaps the most effective ever delivered on earth. As the fruit of Peter’s ministry in these two discourses, about five thousand souls were converted to Christianity.[205]
It is recorded, that, on the day of Pentecost, the hearers “were pricked in their hearts, and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles—Men and brethren, what shall we do?” An inquiry which indicates the utmost solicitude and distress. A sense of sin overwhelmed them, especially of their guilt in rejecting the Son of God; and they pressed around the preacher and his colleagues with this earnest interrogative.
The answer was ready. True ministers of Christ are never at a loss in answering the inquiries of awakened sinners. When the Philippian jailer came trembling to Paul and Silas, and fell down before them, exclaiming—“What must I do to be saved?” “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” was the prompt and appropriate answer.
So Peter, on the day of Pentecost, when three thousand conscience-smitten and heart-broken hearers cried out under the sermon—“What shall we do?” immediately replied—“Repentand be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”
And so in the sermon whence we have taken our text, when he saw that the truth had found its way to the understanding, and the conscience, and the heart—that many were awakened, and convinced of sin—he exhorted them to repentance and faith in Christ, as the condition of salvation:—“Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, who before was preached unto you; whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things.”
The doctrine of this text is—the necessity of Christ’s return to heaven till the consummation of his mediatorial work.
It is generally admitted, that the twenty-second psalm has particular reference to Christ. This is evident from his own appropriation of the first verse upon the cross:—“My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” The title of that psalm is—“Aijeleth Shahar;” which signifies—A hart, or—the hind of the morning. The striking metaphors which it contains are descriptive of Messiah’s peculiar sufferings. He is the hart, or hind of the morning, hunted by the black prince, with his hell-hounds—by Satan, and all his allies. The “dogs,” the “lions,” the “unicorns,” and the “strong bulls of Bashan,” with their devouring teeth, and their terrible horns, pursued him from Bethlehem to Calvary. They beset him in the manger, gnashed upon him in the garden, and wellnigh tore him to pieces upon the cross. And still they persecute him in his cause, and in the persons and interests of his people.
The faith of the church anticipated the coming of Christ, “like a roe or a young hart,” with the dawn of the day promised in Eden; and we hear her exclaiming in the Canticles—“The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills!” She heard him announce his advent in the promise—“Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!” and with prophetic eye, saw him leaping from the mountains of eternity to the mountains of time, and skipping from hill to hill throughout the land of Palestine, going about doing good. In the various types and shadows of the law, she beheld him “standing by the wall,looking forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice;” and then she sung—“Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like the roe or the young hart upon the mountains of Bether!” Bloody sacrifices revealed him to her view, going down to the “vineyards of red wine;” whence she traced him to the meadows of gospel ordinances, where “he feedeth among the lilies”—to “the gardens of cucumbers,” and “the beds of spices;” and then she sung to him again—“Make haste”—or, flee away—“my beloved! be thou like the roe or the young hart upon the mountains of spices!”
Thus she longed to see him, first “on the mountain of Bether,” and then “on the mountain of spices.” On both mountains she saw him eighteen hundred years ago, and on both she may still trace the footsteps of his majesty and his mercy. The former he hath tracked with his own blood, and his path upon the latter is redolent of frankincense and myrrh.
Bether signifies division. This is the craggy mountain of Calvary; whither the “Hind of the morning” fled, followed by all the wild beasts of the forest, and the hunting-dogs of hell; summoned to the pursuit, and urged on, by the prince of perdition; till the victim, in his agony, sweat great drops of blood—where he was terribly crushed between the cliffs, and dreadfully mangled by sharp and ragged rocks—where he was seized by Death, the great greyhound of the bottomless pit—whence he leaped the precipice, without breaking a bone; and sunk in the dead sea, sunk to its utmost depth, and saw no corruption.
Behold the “Hind of the morning” on that dreadful mountain! It is the place of skulls, where death holds his carnival in companionship with worms, and hell laughs in the face of heaven. Dark storms are gathering there—convolving clouds, charged with no common wrath. Terrors set themselves in battle-array before the Son of God; and tempests burst upon him, which might sweep all mankind in a moment to eternal ruin. Hark! hear ye not the subterranean thunder? Feel ye not the tremor of the mountain? It is the shock of Satan’s artillery, playing upon the Captain of our salvation. It is the explosion of the magazine of vengeance. Lo, the earth is quaking, the rocks are rending, the graves are opening, the dead are rising, and all nature stands aghast at the conflict of divine mercy with the powers of darkness. One dread convulsionmore, one cry of desperate agony, and Jesus dies—an arrow has entered into his heart. Now leap the lions, roaring, upon their prey; and the bulls of Bashan are bellowing; and the dogs of perdition are barking; and the unicorns toss their horns on high; and the devil, dancing with exultant joy, clanks his iron chains, and thrusts up his fettered hands in defiance toward the face of Jehovah!
Go a little farther upon the mountain, and you come to “a new tomb hewn out of the rock.” There lies a dead body. It is the body of Jesus. His disciples have laid it down in sorrow, and returned weeping to the city. Mary’s heart is broken, Peter’s zeal is quenched in tears, and John would fain lie down and die in his Master’s grave. The sepulchre is closed up and sealed, and a Roman sentry placed at its entrance. On the morning of the third day, while it is yet dark, two or three women come to anoint the body. They are debating about the great stone at the mouth of the cave. “Who shall roll it away?” says one of them. “Pity we did not bring Peter or John with us.” But arriving, they find the stone already rolled away, and one sitting upon it, whose countenance is like lightning, and whose garments are white as the light. The steel-clad, iron-hearted soldiers lie around him, like men slain in battle, having swooned with terror. He speaks:—“Why seek ye the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen; he is gone forth from this cave victoriously.”
It is even so; for there are the shroud, and the napkin, and the heavenly watchers; and when he awoke, and cast off his grave-clothes, the earthquake was felt in the city, and jarred the gates of hell. “The Hind of the morning” is up earlier than any of his pursuers, “leaping upon the mountains, and skipping upon the hills.” He is seen first with Mary at the tomb; then with the disciples in Jerusalem; then with two of them on the way to Emmaus; then going before his brethren into Galilee; and finally, leaping from the top of Olivet to the hills of Paradise; fleeing away to “the mountains of spices,” where he shall never more be hunted by the black prince and his hounds.
Christ is perfect master of gravitation, and all the laws of nature are obedient to his will. Once he walked upon the water, as if it were marble beneath his feet; and now, as he stands blessing his people, the glorious form so recently nailed to the cross, and still more recently cold in the grave, begins to ascend like “the livingcreature” in Ezekiel’s vision, “lifted up from the earth,” till nearly out of sight; when “the chariots of God, even thousands of angels,” receive him, and haste to the celestial city, waking the thrones of eternity with this jubilant chorus—“Lift up your heads, O ye gates! and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors! and the King of glory shall come in!”
Christ might have rode in a chariot of fire all the way from Bethlehem to Calvary; but he preferred riding in a chariot of mercy, whose lining was crimson, and whose ornament the malefactor’s cross. How rapidly rolled his wheels over the hills and the plains of Palestine, gathering up everywhere the children of affliction, and scattering blessings like the beams of the morning! Now we find him in Cana of Galilee, turning water into wine; then treading the waves of the sea, and hushing the roar of the tempest; then delivering the demoniac of Gadara from the fury of a legion of fiends; then healing the nobleman’s son at Capernaum; raising the daughter of Jairus, and the young man of Nain; writing upon the grave at Bethany—“I am the resurrection and the life;” curing the invalid at the pool of Bethesda; feeding the five thousand in the wilderness; preaching to the woman by Jacob’s well; acquitting the adulteress, and shaming her accusers; and exercising everywhere, in all his travels, the three offices of Physician, Prophet, and Saviour, as he drove on toward the place of skulls.
Now we see the chariot surrounded with enemies—Herod, and Pilate, and Caiaphas, and the Roman soldiers, and the populace of Jerusalem, and thousands of Jews who have come up to keep the Passover, led on by Judas and the devil. See how they rage and curse, as if they would tear him from his chariot of mercy. But Jesus maintains his seat, and holds fast the reins, and drives right on through the angry crowd, without shooting an arrow, or lifting a spear upon his foes. For in that chariot the King must ride to Calvary—Calvary must be consecrated to mercy for ever. He sees the cross planted upon the brow of the hill, and hastens forward to embrace it. No sacrifice shall be offered to Justice on this day, but the one sacrifice which reconciles heaven and earth. None of those children of Belial shall suffer to-day. The bribed witnesses, and clamorous murderers, shall be spared—the smiters, the scourgers, the spitters, the thorn-platters, the nail-drivers, the head-shakers for Jesus pleads on their behalf—“Father, forgive them! theyknow not what they do. They are ignorant of thy truth and grace. They are not aware whom they are crucifying. O, spare them! Let Death know that he shall have enough to do with me to-day! Let him open all his batteries upon me! My bosom is bare to the stroke! I will gather all the lances of hell in my heart!”
Still the chariot rushes on, and “fiery darts” are falling thick and fast, like a shower of meteors, on Messiah’s head, till he is covered with wounds, and the blood flows down his garments, and leaves a crimson track behind him. As he passes, he casts at the dying malefactor a glance of benignity, and throws him a passport into Paradise, written with his own blood; stretches forth his scepter, and touches the prison-door of death, and many of the prisoners come forth, and the tyrant shall never regain his dominion over them; rides triumphant over thrones and principalities, and crushes beneath his wheels the last enemy himself, and leaves the memorial of his march engraven on the rocks of Golgotha!
Christ is everywhere in the Scriptures spoken of as a blessing; and whether we contemplate his advent, his ministry, his miracles, his agony, his crucifixion, his interment, his resurrection, or his ascension, we may truly say, “all his paths drop fatness.” All his travels were on the road of mercy; and trees are growing up in his footsteps, whose fruit is delicious food, and whose “leaves are for the healing of the nations.” He walketh upon the south winds, causing propitious gales to blow upon the wilderness, till songs of joy awake in the solitary place, and the desert blossoms as the rose.
If we will consider what the prophets wrote of Messiah, in connection with the evangelical history, we shall be satisfied that none like him, either before or since, ever entered our world, and departed from it. Both God and man—at once the Father of eternity and the son of time—he filled the universe, while he was imbodied upon earth; and ruled the celestial principalities and powers, while he wandered—a persecuted stranger—in Judea. “No man,” saith he, “hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven—even the Son of man, who is in heaven.”
Heaven was no strange place to Jesus. He talks of the mansions in his Father’s house as familiarly as one of the royal family would talk of Windsor Castle, where he was born; and saith to his disciples—“I go to prepare a place for you; that where I am, thereye may be also.” The glory into which he entered was his own glory—the glory which he had with the Father before the world was. He had an original and supreme right to the celestial mansions; and he acquired a new and additional claim by his office as mediator. Having suffered for our sins, he “ought to enter into his glory.” He ought, because he is “God, blessed for ever”—he ought, because he is the representative of his redeemed people. He has taken possession of the kingdom in our behalf, and left on record for our encouragement this cheering promise—“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne; even as I also have overcome, and am set down with my Father in his throne.”
The departure of God from Eden, and the departure of Christ from the earth, were two of the sublimest events that ever occurred, and fraught with immense consequences to our race. When Jehovah went out from Eden, he left a curse upon the place for man’s sake, and drove out man before him into an accursed earth. But when Jesus ascended from Olivet, he lifted the curse with him, and left a blessing behind him—sowed the world with the seed of eternal blessings; “and instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; and instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree; and it shall be to the Lord for a name, and an everlasting sign, that shall not be cut off.” He ascended to intercede for sinners, and reopen paradise to his people; and when he shall come the second time, according to the promise, with all his holy angels, then shall we be “caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”
“The Lord is gone up with a shout,” and has taken our redeemed nature with him. He is the head of the church, and her representative at the right hand of the Father. “He hath ascended on high; he hath led captivity captive; he hath received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that God may dwell among them.” “Him hath God exalted, with his own right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.” This is the Father’s recognition of his “Beloved Son,” and significant acceptance of his sacrifice. “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in the earth, and things under the earth; and that everytongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
The evidence of our Lord’s ascension is ample. He ascended in the presence of many witnesses, who stood gazing after him till a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, two angels appeared to them, and talked with them of what they had seen. Soon afterward, on the day of Pentecost, he fulfilled, in a remarkable manner, the promise which he had made to his people:—“If I go away, I will send you another Comforter, who shall abide with you for ever.” Stephen, the first of his disciples that glorified the Master by martyrdom, testified to his murderers—“Lo, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God!” And John, “the beloved disciple,” while an exile “in Patmos, for the word of God, and the testimony of Jesus Christ,” beheld him “in the midst of the throne, as a Lamb that had been slain!” These are the evidences that our Lord is in heaven; these are our consolations in the house of our pilgrimage.
The apostle speaks of thenecessityof this event:—“Whom the heavenmustreceive.”
Divine necessity is a golden chain, reaching from eternity to eternity, and encircling all the events of time. It consists of many links, all hanging upon each other; and not one of them can be broken, without destroying the support of the whole. The first link is in God, “before the world was;” and the last is in heaven, when the world shall be no more. Christ is its Alpha and Omega, and Christ constitutes all its intervenient links. Christ in the bosom of the Father, receiving the promise of eternal life, before the foundation of the world, is the beginning; Christ in his sacrificial blood, atoning for our sins, and pardoning and sanctifying all them that believe, is the middle; and Christ in heaven, pleading the merit of his vicarious sufferings, making intercession for the transgressors, drawing all men unto himself, presenting the prayers of his people, and preparing their mansions, is the end.
There is a necessity in all that Christ has done as our Mediator, in all that he is doing on our behalf, and all that he has engaged to do—the necessity of Divine love manifested, of Divine mercy exercised, of Divine purposes accomplished, of Divine covenants fulfilled, of Divine faithfulness maintained, of Divine justice satisfied,of Divine holiness vindicated, and of Divine power displayed, Christ felt this necessity while he tabernacled among us, often declared it to his disciples, and acknowledged it to the Father in the agony of the garden.
Behold him wrestling in prayer, with strong crying and tears:—“Father, save me from this hour! If it be possible, let this cup pass from me!” Now the Father reads to him his covenant engagement, which he signed and sealed with his own hand before the foundation of the world. The glorious Sufferer replies:—“Thy will be done! For this cause came I unto this hour. I will drink the cup which thou hast mingled, and not a dreg of any of its ingredients shall be left for my people. I will pass through the approaching dreadful night, under the hidings of thy countenance, bearing away the curse from my beloved. Henceforth, repentance is hidden from mine eyes!” Now, on his knees, he reads the covenant engagements of the Father, and adds:—“I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. Now glorify thou me, according to thy promise, with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Father, I will also that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. Thine they were, and thou hast given them to me, on condition of my pouring out my soul unto death. Thou hast promised them, through my righteousness and meritorious sacrifice, the kingdom of heaven, which I now claim on their behalf. Father, glorify my people, with him whom thou lovedst before the foundation of the world!”
The intercession of Christ for his saints, begun on earth, is continued in heaven. This is our confidence and joy in our journeyings through the wilderness. We know that our Joshua has gone over into the land of our inheritance, where he is preparing a place of habitation for Israel, for it is his will that all whom he has redeemed should be with him for ever!
The text speaks of the period when the great purposes of our Lord’s ascension shall be fully accomplished:—“until the times of restitution of all things.”
The period here mentioned is “the dispensation of the fulness of time,” when “the fulness of the gentiles shall come in,” and “the dispersed of Judah” shall be restored, and Christ shall “gather together in himself all things in heaven and in earth,” overthrow hisenemies, establish his everlasting kingdom, deliver the groaning creation from its bondage, glorify his people with himself, imprison the devil and his angels in the bottomless pit, and punish with destruction from his presence them that obey not the gospel.
To this glorious consummation, the great travail of redemption, and all the events of time, are only preparatory. It was promised in Eden, and the promise was renewed and enlarged to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. It was described in gorgeous oriental imagery by Isaiah, and “the sweet psalmist of Israel;” and “spoken of by all the prophets, since the world began.” Christ came into the world to prepare the way for his future triumph—to lay on Calvary the “chief corner-stone” of a temple, which shall be completed at the end of time, and endure through all eternity. He began the great restitution. He redeemed his people with a price, and gave them a pledge of redemption by power. He made an end of sin, abolished the Levitical priesthood, and swallowed up all the types and shadows in himself. He sent home the beasts, overthrew the altars, and quenched the holy fire; and, upon the sanctifying altar of his own divinity, offered his own sinless humanity, which was consumed by fire from heaven. He removed the seat of government from Mount Zion in Jerusalem, to Mount Zion above, where he sits—“a priest upon his throne”—drawing heaven and earth together, and establishing “the covenant of peace between them both.” Blessed be God! we can now go to Jesus, the mediator; passing by millions of angels, and all the spirits of just men made perfect; till we “come to the blood of sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that of Abel.” And we look for that blessed day, when “this gospel of the kingdom” shall be universally prevalent; “and all shall know the Lord, from the least even to the greatest”—when there shall be “a new heaven, and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness”—when both the political and the moral aspects of our world shall be changed; and a happier state of things shall exist than has ever been known before—when the pestilence, the famine, and the sword shall cease to destroy; and “the saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdom,” in “quietness and assurance for ever.” “Then cometh the end,” when Emmanuel “shall destroy in this mountain the vail of the covering cast over all people, and swallow up death in victory!”
But what will it avail you to hear of this glorious restitution, ifyou are not partakers of its incipient benefits, and happily interested in its consummation? Has it begun in your own hearts? Are you restored to God in Christ? Have you a place in his house, and a name among his people? Are your feet running the way of his commandments, and your hands diligent in doing his work? If not, “it is high time to awake out of sleep.” “Repent and believe the gospel!” “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, who will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon!”
“These things have I spoken unto you,that in me ye might have peace.In the world ye shall have tribulation;but be of good cheer;I have overcome the world.”—John xvi. 33.
“These things have I spoken unto you,that in me ye might have peace.In the world ye shall have tribulation;but be of good cheer;I have overcome the world.”—John xvi. 33.
Thelast sayings of those we love are not soon forgotten. These words form the conclusion of our Lord’s valedictory to his disciples. They did not yet understand that the redemption of man was to be obtained by the death of their Master. When Christ was put to death, he descended to the lower parts of the earth, in order to raise up sinners; but their faith could not follow him into the deep. Nicholas Pisces sunk into the sea to raise a golden cup, but neither he nor the cup ever came up again. A man clothed in glass went down to prepare for raising the Royal George; the man came up, but the ship remains in the bottom. But our blessed Redeemer, clothed in humanity, descended to the deeps of death, and raised the church from the pit of perdition, and founded her upon a rock, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail.
We would notice,first, the peace that is in Christ, in opposition to the tribulation that is in the world; andsecondly, the victory of Christ over the world, as the source of comfort and joy to believers.
I. “These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. I know what you will have in the world—mountains of tribulation—nothing but tribulation. I will put my peace in the other end of the scale.”
Peace in Christ is “the peace of God which passeth all understanding”—an ocean sufficiently deep and large to swallow up millions of fiery mountains. See the awakened sinner, overwhelmed with the terrors of God. His inflexible justice and spotless holinessseem to him like a mountain of flame, which he cannot approach without being consumed. But the Holy Spirit shows him the reconciling blood of the cross. He sees the crucified God-man rising from the grave, and ascending on high, “to be a Prince and a Saviour, to give repentance and remission of sins.” Instantly the terrible mountain sinks and is lost in the sea of his Redeemer’s merit. His faith has conquered his fears. His burden of guilt is gone. He is a new creature in Christ Jesus, and in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation. The deluge of tribulation may swell and roar around him, but he is securely enclosed in the ark.
A man in a trance saw himself locked up in a house of steel, through the walls of which, as through walls of glass, he could see his enemies assailing him with swords, spears, and bayonets; but his life was safe, for his fortress was locked within. So is the Christian secure amid the assaults of the world. His “life is hid with Christ in God.”
The psalmist prayed—“When my heart is overwhelmed within me, lead me to the Rock that is higher than I.” Imagine a man seated on a lofty rock in the midst of the sea, where he has every thing necessary for his support, shelter, safety, and comfort. The billows heave and break beneath him, and the hungry monsters of the deep wait to devour him; but he is on high, above the rage of the former, and the reach of the latter. Such is the security of faith.
But why need I mention the rock and the steel house? for the peace that is in Christ is a tower ten thousand times stronger, and a refuge ten thousand times safer. Behold the disciples of Jesus exposed to famine, nakedness, peril, and sword—incarcerated in dungeons; thrown to wild beasts; consumed in the fire; sawn asunder; cruelly mocked and scourged; driven from friends and home, to wander among the mountains, and lodge in dens and caves of the earth; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; sorrowful, but always rejoicing; cast down, but not destroyed; an ocean of peace within, which swallows up all their sufferings.
“Neither death,” with all its terrors; “nor life,” with all its allurements; “nor things present,” with all their pleasure; “nor things to come,” with all their promise; “nor height” of prosperity; “nor depth” of adversity; “nor angels” of evil; “nor principalities” of darkness; “shall be able to separate us from thelove of God, which is in Christ Jesus.” “God is our refuge and strength; a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea—though the waters thereof roar and be troubled—though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.” This is the language of strong faith in the peace of Christ. How is it with you amid such turmoil and commotion? Is all peaceful within? Do you feel secure in the name of the Lord, as in a strong fortress—as in a city well supplied and defended?
“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most high. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right early.” “Unto the upright, there ariseth light in the darkness.” The bright and morning star, shining upon their pathway, cheers them in their journey home to their Father’s house. And when they come to pass over Jordan, the Sun of Righteousness shall have risen upon them, with healing in his wings. Already they see the tops of the mountains of immortality, gilded with his beams, beyond the valley of the shadow of death. Behold, yonder, old Simeon hoisting his sails, and saying—“Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” Such is the peace of Jesus, sealed to all them that believe, by the blood of his cross.
When we walk through the field of battle, slippery with blood, and strewn with the bodies of the slain—when we hear the shrieks and the groans of the wounded and the dying—when we see the country wasted, cities burned, houses pillaged, widows and orphans wailing in the track of the victorious army, we cannot help exclaiming—O, what a blessing is peace! When we are obliged to witness family turmoils and strifes—when we see parents and children, brothers and sisters, masters and servants, husbands and wives, contending with each other like tigers—we retire as from a smoky house, and exclaim as we go—O, what a blessing is peace! When duty calls us into that church, where envy and malice prevail, and the spirit of harmony is supplanted by discord and contention—when we see brethren, who ought to be bound together in love, full of pride, hatred, confusion, and every evil work—we quit the unhallowed scene with painful feelings of repulsion, repeating the exclamation—O, what a blessing is peace!